THE SURFACE OF THE GLOBE. 153 



ties of horns very much resembling those of our deer, as well as bones 

 very closely assimilating to those of the aurochs and those of the do- 

 mestic ox, two very distinct species, which former naturalists had im- 

 properly confounded. . However, the entire heads, like those of other 

 animals, as well as the musk ox of Canada, which have often been dug 

 up, do not come from positions sufficiently assured to enable us to de- 

 termine that these species were cotemporary with the great pachyder- 

 mata that we have above mentioned. 

 # The osseous braccise, of the banks of the Mediterranean, have also 

 afforded two species of lagomys, an animal now only existing in Sibe- 

 ria ; two species of rabbits, lemmings, and rats of the size of the water- 

 rat, and that of a mouse. They are also found in the caverns of Eng- 

 land. 



The osseous bracciae, contain even the bones of shrew mice and 

 lizards. 



There are in certain sandy strata of Tuscany, the teeth of a porcu- 

 pine, and in those of Russia, the head of a species of beaver larger 

 than ours, which Mr. Fischer calls trogontherium. But it is principally 

 in the class Edentata, that these races of animals, prior to the last 

 period, assume a size much greater than that of the present congene- 

 rate species and attain even a gigantic size. 



The megatherium unites one portion of the generic character of the 

 armadilloes with a portion of that of the sloth, and in size it equals 

 the largest rhinoceros. Its nails must have been of monstrous length 

 and power ; all its frame has vast solidity. It has yet only been 

 found in the sandy strata of North America. 



The megalonyx resembled it much in its characteristics, but was 

 somewhat less ; its nails were longer and sharper. Some of its bones 

 and entire toes have been found in certain caverns in Virginia, and in 

 an island on the coast of Georgia. 



These two enormous edentata have only deposited their remains in 

 America ; but Europe possessed one which did not yield to them in 

 bulk. It is not known by a single terminating toe-joint ; but this is 

 sufficient to convince us that it very much resembled a pangolin, but a 

 pangolin is nearly twenty feet long. It lived in the same districts as 

 the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the immense tapir; for we. find its 

 bones with theirs in a sandy layer near Darmstadt, not far from the 

 Rhine. 



The osseous bracciae also contain, but very rarely, bones of carnivora, 

 much more numerous in caverns, that is to say, in cavities larger and 

 more complicated than the clefts or veins containing osseous bracciae. 



VOL. I. Q 



